I Was a Breakthrough Covid Case

I hate these little monsters!

DENIAL

I never expected to hear the words that came out of the Doctor’s mouth at my local Urgent Care office. “Sorry to to tell you but you have Covid; the test came back positive. You’ll have to quarantine for 10 days.”

There’s no way that I have Covid! I didn’t socialize with anyone except my immediate family. I always used hand sanitizer. I wore a mask in crowded places. I always wiped down grocery carriages and even gas pumps before using them. I practiced social distancing. I had taken the J&J Covid vaccine in April 2021 at the urging of my family to get protection from the virus.

I should have known the unusual body aches that I started having on a Friday night which left me almost unable to walk weren’t normal. It wasn’t like anything I had experienced before. What’s wrong with you mom? my daughter Lisa asked. “Nothing, I’m just very tired” I responded. That night I took 2 Tylenol and went to bed. “I’ll feel better in the morning”, I said to myself. I woke up with body aches the next day, but I had a busy day of cooking for my family all weekend so I took 2 more Tylenol to get through the day. I made it through my busy weekend taking more pain killers and although I felt extremely tired I felt it was because I overdid it with all the cooking and babysitting of my granddaughters.

Monday night sudden chills hit me along with a scratchy throat. It didn’t feel like a “regular” cold with a runny nose or sneezing. It felt more like a sinus cold. “It’s allergies or a summer cold” I thought. 3 days later, on Thursday morning I woke up with an excruciating sinus headache behind my eyeballs along with nausea. I thought it was definitely a sinus infection.

Friday morning the headache and the nausea continued, so I decided to get tested since my family suspected this was more than just a cold. I also had to babysit my granddaughter who had just started preschool that afternoon and I didn’t want to give her a cold during her first week of school.

It took my husband and I almost 2 hours and 5 phone calls to Covid testing sites to find an opening that morning. It wasn’t easy and quite frustrating. At one point we drove to the mall that offered drive up testing. We were shocked to find a huge line of about 100 cars to depths that I hadn’t seen since last year of 2020. Finally I had an evaluation at my Urgent care.

ANGER

Who the hell gave me Covid? The anger set in as I tried to blame someone. I traced my steps the previous week to narrow down where I could have gotten it? The only places I went to was, grocery shopping and my local bakery. How was this even possible? Was it through using my debit card or the touch pad? Did I forget to wipe down the carriage at the grocery store like I had done every time the last year and a half? Did I shake hands with someone or hug them? Could it be in the take out pizza I ate that Friday? Was it the young teenager who packed my groceries? Who the hell gave me Covid?

GUILT

The guilt set in and I felt like a total failure! “What a terrible grandmother I am.” I was angry with myself for getting the virus and possibly spreading it to my family who I had spent the entire weekend with. Everyone of them, including my husband, daughter, sons, daughter in law and even my granddaughters all had to get tested. Many missed days of school, work, and their quarantine was all because of me! My brothers and sisters were all upset and worried about me too.

Thankfully my daughter Lisa and my husband Augie took care of me. They cooked for me, fed me, nursed me back to health and quarantined along with me for 10 days! The whole week I could see the worry in their eyes through the masks they wore. What a terrible mother and wife to do this to them.

BARGAINING

If I recover from this, I’ll never go out in public again. I’ll never go out without a mask again. I’ll never eat take out food again! I’ll never hug or go near a person again! I’ll get my flu shot every year. I never want to put my family through this again.

DEPRESSION

The depression, crying, praying, feeling of doom, and possibly ending up on a respirator was terrible. The 10 days of quarantine brought fear and anxiety expecting it to get worse. I took my temperature every 30 minutes and tested my breathing constantly. Was I having chest congestion or was it just anxiety? Crying and praying wasn’t an option for long, because it made the anxiety even worse, so I stopped. I also stopped taking my temperature and my oxygen levels so often and I limited it to a only a few times a day, once in the morning and once at night.

ACCEPTANCE

Dealing with the virus was physically and mentally draining and was very difficult because of not knowing how sick I was going to get. I told myself just take this “one day at a time” and count down the days to end of quarantine. 10, 9. 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. “Calm down you’ll get through this,” I told myself.

Back pain, body aches, loss of taste and smell, headache, loss of appetite, nausea, dehydration, cough, upset stomach stomach, and sleeplessness. I had all of the classic side-effects except the fever. I did have minimal chest congestion.

I used saline spray to clear my sinus, Tylenol for body and backaches. I drank a lot of hot chamomile and lemon balm tea to calm me down. I tried to stay hydrated by drinking Gatorade, lots of ice water with lemon, and seltzer with lemon. Ginger ale and ginger candies helped the nausea slightly.

At 6 days into my quarantine, I felt week and lightheaded. I could tell by my wrinkled skin on my hands that I was dehydrated. My nausea had left me weak because I literally ate nothing for days except wheat toast, tea and Chicken Noodle Soup that Lisa made me. I started drinking Adult Pedialyte every day to replenish my electrolytes, nutrients and zinc. Within a few hours of my first glass, I began to feel better and after the 10 days I did get better, thankfully.

Now it’s been 2 weeks later. I’m slowly getting my strength back. The cough is gone, and my sense of smell and taste is slowly getting better. People ask me how did it feel? I can describe it as a very bad flu. Although It may be considered a “mild case” of Covid because I didn’t end up in the hospital, it was horrible. I often wondered if the vaccine had prevented me from going to hospital? What would have happened to me if I didn’t get it back in April?

I thank God that my family didn’t see me in a hospital on a respirator. It would have killed them. My advice to everyone is to go get the Covid vaccine. Do it for your family. Stay safe and I wish you all health. 🙂

NOTE: I’m not endorsing any products below but I’m just giving some information that might help for those going through the virus themselves. These are all over the counter remedies that I took. I’m not a medical professional. Follow your own doctors advise before taking any of these.